HOWL – Part Three – Inspector Detective of Email Violations

  • February 17, 2012
A Voice of America journalist who uses a pen name Mary Jane has posed this problem: As we stand on the precipice of collapse, crumbling and leaderless, fearing for our jobs while simultaneously wishing to be released from this torturous slow decay, a keen look at our so-called management is due. Mary Jane promised to provide that look in several installments. The series is titled “HOWL.” Part Three – Inspector Detective of Email Violations Few are the Executive Producer and Managing Editors who have not received one of these chastising missives, confidently sent to “reply all.” Read this bit of VOA managerial prose: “While it certainly helps to know when

Party Line vs. Congressional Hearings

  • February 16, 2012
“What all of this discussion points to every so clearly is the need for overseeing congressional committees to hold comprehensive hearings on the future of U.S. international broadcasting, and do it BEFORE any legislation is able to move through Congress that would simply rubber stamp the BBG’s flim flam strategic plan.” – A comment from an anonymous VOA journalist on an article in MountainRunner.us by Dr. Kim Andrew Elliott

No Free Speech at USIB

  • February 16, 2012
Message to Broadcasting Board of Governors: Yes, some of us are cowards and we are ashamed I agree totally with the scared employee quoted above. Even amongst management there is a pervasive sense of fear and retaliation. Anyone’s job can be put on the line for petty imagined offenses – or a privately expressed opinion

HOWL – VOA journalist’s view of management – Part One

  • February 15, 2012
Without the grossly exploited POVs, VOA would be little more than Kafkaesque hallways of frustrated bureaucrats with no one to boss around. – Anonymous VOA journalist A Voice of America journalist who uses a pen name Mary Jane has posed this problem: As we stand on the precipice of collapse, crumbling and leaderless, fearing for our jobs while simultaneously wishing to be released from this torturous slow decay, a keen look at our so-called management is due. Mary Jane promised to provide that look in several installments

Beware of Tibetan Buddhist Monks

  • February 15, 2012
BBG Watch is wondering whether the same Broadcasting Board of Governors executives who tried to reduce Radio Free Asia broadcasts to Tibet in 2007 and convinced the current BBG members to propose ending Voice of America radio to Tibet told the Board about what happened in 2007 and what might happen again now. This is what Politico reported in May, 2007, “Monks plead with Hill for Tibetan radio airtime” Their flowing red robes stood out in the sea of gray, navy and brown suits assembled for a recent hearing before the House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations

HOWL – VOA journalist’s view of management – Part Two: Reality Check

  • February 15, 2012
A Voice of America journalist who uses a pen name Mary Jane has posed this problem: As we stand on the precipice of collapse, crumbling and leaderless, fearing for our jobs while simultaneously wishing to be released from this torturous slow decay, a keen look at our so-called management is due. Mary Jane promised to provide that look in several installments

Audio of VOA Director Ensor’s meeting with Newsroom staff on program cuts and RIFs

  • February 14, 2012
Link to audio of Voice of America Director David Ensor’s meeting on January 13, 2012 with VOA Newsroom staff on the subject of the FY 2013 Broadcasting Board of Governors budget and BBG-proposed cuts in VOA programs and positions. https://rcpt.yousendit.com/1375956448/8a97f1275938c15c75be83c3bffa9bf2 Content will be available for download until February 27, 2012 20:46 PST

‘Has Broadcasting Board of Governors Gone Mad?’ BBG wants to cut Voice of America programs to Tibet and other…

  • February 14, 2012
This commentary by an anonymous Broadcasting Board of Governors’ journalist analyzes the BBG’s FY2013 budget proposal which calls for silencing Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts to Tibet as part of cutting America’s broadcasts to three out of five remaining communist regimes. Silencing Voice of America Radio to Tibet: Has the Broadcasting Board of Governors Gone Mad? The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) budget submission requests cutting seven employees out of 22 in the Voice of America (VOA) Tibetan Service, ending all six hours of daily VOA Tibetan radio broadcasts.

IBB/BBG executives cut and reduce Voice of America English and foreign language programs and positions

  • February 14, 2012
Voice of America (VOA) radio to Tibet and radio and TV in Cantonese to China to be completely eliminated under the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) proposal. As predicted by BBG Watch, in their FY2013 budget proposal, International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) and Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) executives continue their plan to eliminate or greatly reduce numerous Voice of America (VOA) English and foreign language programs and associated jobs serving many critical countries, including China and Tibet. In what could be described as nothing less than an attempt to eliminate Voice of America as the primary source for news about America on radio and television and to reduce VOA brand name presence in many countries, IBB/BBG executives have proposed complete elimination of VOA radio broadcasts to Tibet, both radio and TV broadcasts in Cantonese to China, VOA radio to Georgia, VOA radio to Albania, and all VOA programs to Greece.

‘Civility in the Workplace’ Campaign vs. ‘Sanity in the Workplace’

  • February 13, 2012
From a VOA journalist: Re the below “Civility in the Workplace” Campaign: How amusing that VOA kicked off an “act nice” campaign just before the big RIF announcements. The future-unemployed, it seems, are expected to maintain happy faces even as they contemplate their bankrupt futures and their managers’ fat fortunes. At yesterday’s Central News meeting, David Ensor said there would be cuts in management, too.

Attrition by Fear at BBG

  • February 13, 2012
It is not likely that the Congress will pass President Obama’s budget with the insane Broadcasting Board of Governors’ proposal to end Voice of America radio to Tibet and to eliminate or make largely ineffective other VOA services, including English. BBG Watch sources inside BBG believe that International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) executives are pursuing another strategy: to get rid of as many Federal employees as possible using fear of RIFs and other subtle and less subtle intimidation tactics. This is what one inside source has sent us: Attrition by Fear “According to several sources inside the Agency, one question apparently is having trouble finding an answer:

BBG Budget Announcement

  • February 13, 2012
Subject: A Message from the Board In the past year, the men and women who work in U.S. international broadcasting have offered extraordinary coverage of the Arab Spring, conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan, ferment in Iran and Russia, the struggle over Tibet and other developments in China, and issues of human rights and democracy all over the world, as well as offering life-saving information during humanitarian disasters.

Expected 4.7 percent BBG budget cut and RIFs to hit rank-and-file employees and critical programs

  • February 13, 2012
BBG Watch News Commentary The proposed budget cut for the entire Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) in FY 2013 is expected to be 4.7 percent and that painful RIFs (Reductions-in-Force) are unavoidable and likely to be used against rank-and-file employees, BBG Watch sources report. They are afraid that critical broadcasting and other information programs to countries without free media will be cut to protect the jobs of the International Broadcasting Bureau managers.

Employees don’t buy ‘computer system is to blame’ explanation for late contractor payments

  • February 12, 2012
Judging by the content and the tone of comments to our report, “BBG orders that contractors be paid on time by Thanksgiving,” IBB/BBG employees don’t buy the management’s explanation that an outdated computer system is to blame for late payments to contract employees. Those employees who have commented see the explanation as a typical ploy by the managers responsible for the problem to deflect the blame from themselves. Employees also make fun of the BBG-imposed Thanksgiving deadline for paying contract employees and vendors on time.